California built the one of the cleanest grids in the country and wholesale prices have never been lower — but utility bills keep going up. One reason: utilities make more money by spending more.

The fastest approach to expand the grid is via the distribution system, using front-of-meter storage to precisely target substations and feeders that need relief, writes Jigar Shah of Deploy Action.

“We all know what’s driving up utility rates and bills,” said Phil Ting. ​“Every time PG&E is building something, they’re getting their rate of return. That adds to our rate base — the rates go up — and that’s what they’re financially motivated to do.”

"We need to become more efficient to meet that growth, otherwise we're just going to keep building more infrastructure and everyone's bills are going to go up," said Arnab Pal, executive director of Deploy Action.

The grid we already have is running at a fraction of its capacity — and the technology to unlock it has existed for 20 years. Jigar Shah and co-host Arnab Pal sit down with Vishal Kapadia to ask the obvious question: if the technology works, why hasn't anyone scaled it?

Your utility bill keeps going up. But the problem isn't that we need to build more — it's that we're barely using what we already have. Arnab Pal joins Jigar and Jamie to make the case for grid utilization: the unglamorous, cost-cutting strategy that governors, regulators, and utilities are finally starting to pay attention to.

States can control the retail cost of electricity by promoting virtual power plants, consisting of distributed batteries and other resources, which can be deployed “within months,” said industry veteran Jigar Shah and a co-author in a report.

If we treat every new megawatt like it must be served with new poles, wires, substations and peakers, we will lock in another decade of rate shock, write Jigar Shah and Arnab Pal from Deploy Action.